My fears for Catherine Zeta Jones' mental health: Maid of honour and close friend gives her bombshell verdict on the Hollywood couple’s break-up

The Zeta-Jones clan were in their favourite window seat, just behind the oak bar of the Hancock pub, overlooking Mumbles Bay.

Their glasses were full of white wine, the bottles empty. But the gaiety was forced. Catherine, her mother Pat and two of the actress’s close friends were subdued, their conversation hushed.

Eventually one friend cajoled the party to clink glasses. ‘Right,’ she said decisively. ‘That’s it. No one is to mention the M-word again tonight.’

The setting, six weeks ago, was Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones’s favourite pub in Mumbles, two miles down the road from where she was born, in Swansea.

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones announced the end of their 13-year-long marriage this week

‘At the time it wasn’t really clear what the M-word they were referring to was,’ says a local who overheard the exchange. ‘Of course, now there can be no doubt it was Michael.’

It was the first clear sign, after months of rumours and speculation, that their seemingly rock-solid 13-year marriage really had imploded. Michael, who would normally have been visiting with the family, did not make the trip and the Hollywood couple, said to be worth £180 million, have now announced that they are ‘taking some time apart to evaluate and work on their marriage’.

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Curiously, the statement comes two and a half weeks after Michael’s latest check-up for throat cancer. He was first declared free of the disease in 2011 and was again given an all-clear.

But friends of the couple believe his close brush with death has forced the Wall Street and Behind The Candelabra star, 69, to re-examine his life – and he didn’t like what he saw.

‘He concluded that his marriage was over in all but name and he saw no point in continuing to live a lie,’ an insider told The Mail on Sunday.

‘He knows it is incredibly tough on their children [Dylan, 13, and Carys, ten], but he has no intention of seeing any less of them.

‘He’s still their father and he’ll continue to play a full part in their lives for as long as he is able.

‘But his marriage had become a cold, dark place and he wanted out so he could find some peace.’

Catherine and Anna Walker in 1993. Anna, who was made of honour at the celebrity wedding, has now said that she is concerned for her friend's health

Nevertheless, last Wednesday’s announcement of their separation shocked the couple’s dearest friends, who are desperately hoping it will not be permanent.

Television presenter Anna Walker – host of travel shows such as ITV’s Holidaymaker and Wish You Were Here? – has been one of Catherine’s closest confidants for 20 years, and told The Mail on Sunday the actress will be devastated by Michael’s decision to split.

Anna, who was maid of honour at the couple’s star-studded New York wedding in December 2000 and whose eldest child is Catherine’s godson, has shared numerous holidays with the couple. She is one of the few people who can offer a unique insight into their relationship.

And her concern right now is that Catherine, who suffers from bipolar disorder, could spiral into another deep well of depression.

‘The next few weeks will be very tough and I’m very worried about her,’ says Anna. ‘This is a very traumatic time and her mental health could be adversely affected.

‘I’m sure it’s not been easy for her to cope with the stress of Michael’s illness. She’s just had another round of treatment for her bipolar and if she can keep that in check under all this stress it will be a miracle.

‘Her mother Pat is with her at the moment, so I know she’s in good hands. And nowadays there is very good medication that can help.’

Anna believes the split from Douglas is against everything her actress friend holds dear.

‘It will have hit her very hard because she definitely believes marriage is for once in a lifetime,’ says Anna, from her home in Switzerland where she now lives with her husband, businessman Will Herrington, and their three children.

‘Catherine is very old-fashioned and never wanted to ever go through a divorce. Her parents, Pat and Dai, have been together for more than 50 years and are her role models. She wanted her marriage to be like theirs.

Catherine is said to be very old-fashioned and never wanted to ever go through a divorce. Her parents have been together for more than 50 years and are her role models

‘I don’t believe that whatever is troubling them is long-standing. They’ve always had a terrific marriage. When I saw them on holiday in the summer of 2011, Michael was in cracking form and in amazing good health considering all he’d been through. They were constantly touching each other and exchanging loving glances.

‘Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time with them, either on family holidays at their homes, or sailing on their yacht. In private, they both try very hard to maintain as normal a life as possible. They are brilliant together and I hope they remain so.

'She’s a dependable, loving, passionate person. From the start, it was clear to me just how much in love they were. This was a genuine love match.

‘They simply adored each other. They were always touching and laughing. I’ve seen Catherine with previous boyfriends and Michael really struck me as The One. He’s an extremely charming man and simply adored her. They just fit.’

Anna, 48, is anxious to dash any negative views about her friend. ‘Family is everything to her. She’s passionate and loyal. There’s a handful of friends she’s known for years and she’s stuck by us through thick and thin.’

The two women met in 1991 when Anna was dating Pebble Mill presenter Ross King and Catherine was with Blue Peter presenter John Leslie. Anna recalls: ‘The guys were in a celebrity football team and we went along one Sunday to watch. We clicked straight away and spent the entire match chatting and laughing.

‘Every month or so, we girls would meet up. We’d go to each other’s houses and we’d laugh and drink – a lot. And, despite her fame, she’s not changed very much at all. She’s still a girl from the Welsh valleys who laughs like a drain and loves nothing more than sharing a drink and telling jokes.’

Catherine, now 43, first earned fame in the early 1990s playing fresh-faced Mariette Larkin in television’s The Darling Buds Of May, before moving to Hollywood to win a part in 1998’s The Mask Of Zorro.

Michael engineered a meeting with the young actress at the very same
film festival and famously told her: 'I want to father your children'

‘People don’t realise that she took a huge risk by going to Los Angeles when no one knew her,’ says Anna. ‘Luckily, it paid off. She’s worked very hard to get where she is and deserves all her successes.’ It was after watching Catherine’s lively Mask of Zorro performance that Michael famously decided she was the woman for him and arranged an introduction.

‘She managed to keep the relationship a secret from everyone, but I knew,’ says Anna. ‘There was a lot of passion on both sides.

‘It doesn’t matter that he’s older than her. I can’t imagine either of them with anybody else.’ She recalls visiting the couple in Majorca in December 2009, when Catherine confided that they were getting married and asked her to be the maid of honour. ‘You could have knocked me over with a feather, to be honest,’ says Anna. ‘It was a tremendous honour.’

On the morning of the wedding in 2000, the two friends were getting ready in Catherine’s suite at New York’s Plaza hotel.

‘There was a huge crowd below chanting her name so we went out on the balcony to watch. We’d had our make up and hair done and were in our dressing gowns. I said: “This is all for you, can you believe it?” ‘She was shaking her head, saying: “This is for me? I can’t believe that I’m marrying Michael Douglas and all these people have turned out for me.” She was still trying to come to terms with the fact her life would change from then on.

‘It says so much about her loyalty that she chose me to be by her side when she could have had any of her new celebrity girlfriends.’

Anna could not help but be star-struck by the celebrity guest list. ‘Sitting at the top table, I was thinking blimey, there’s Jack Nicholson and Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe –seriously big names.’ Anna was invited to give a speech with just five minutes’ notice.

Her husband Will told her to speak directly to Catherine. ‘It was just off-the-cuff. I wrote a few pointers on the back of a napkin and just said I thought they were soul mates and meant for each other.’

The couple pictured arguing while on a 2003 yacht holiday in Italy, off the island of Capri

Catherine had been married to Michael for little more than a year when Anna asked her to be godmother to her son Sean.

‘She had no hesitation in accepting. We managed to keep the christening quiet and I was really touched that they came over. The service was in a tiny church, near my in-laws, in Buckinghamshire. It freaked the vicar out a little to see them, but it was a really special day.’

The two families have grown close over the years. ‘We’ve been privileged to spend time with them when they have been at their most relaxed. Honestly, you could not meet a lovelier couple,’ insists Anna.

‘They were brilliant together. But Catherine always kept her own space and her own friends. She never really bought into the whole Hollywood star thing.’

Until 2009, the Douglas family lived in Bermuda, far from the bright lights of Hollywood. They then moved to New York in a bid to restart her career with a run on Broadway, while Michael said he was happy to be a stay-at-home dad.

She and Michael received widespread public support after revealing in August 2010 that he had throat cancer. After six months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, they announced the tumour was gone. Catherine supported him through his treatment, only to succumb to depression and was diagnosed as bipolar soon afterwards.

Friends believe the stress of dealing with his health crisis, at the same time that Michael’s eldest son Cameron from his first marriage to Diandra Luker was jailed for drug offences, put a severe strain on the relationship.

Michael and Catherine in 2000, only a few months before their wedding

Catherine sought relief by drinking and smoking heavily as she sank into depression, before checking into a £775-a night-psychiatric hospital in Connecticut in 2011, for help with her bipolar disorder. She returned for further treatment four months ago.

At first, it seemed Hollywood’s golden couple would emerge as much in love as ever, but by 2012 the cracks had started to appear and they were living increasingly separate lives.

Their relationship hit rock bottom after Michael – who has denied reports he once suffered from sex addiction – suggested in June that his cancer had been caused by oral sex – without making it clear this was before meeting his wife. Things between them never recovered.

The close-knit Jones family have rallied around Catherine. Her father Dai, a retired sweet factory manager, was on grandfather duty last Monday, taking Dylan and Carys on a shopping trip in Swansea.

Catherine’s younger brother, Lyndon Jones, played his part by taking the two children to a car boot sale at nearby Singleton Park.

Anna knows Catherine wants to try to keep things as normal as possible for the children’s sake.

‘In these situations only the couple themselves knows what’s happening, but I’m convinced they will be trying hard to find a way to stay together. If there is any way to make it work they will.’

And despite everything, Douglas was wearing his wedding ring yesterday at the very place where he first met Catherine in 1998 – the Deauville American Film Festival in northern France.

He looked in good spirits and said: ‘People have been kindly asking how I’m doing.

‘Well, I put on a suit tonight – one that I can’t come close to buttoning – so everything must be OK.’